Vietnamese expatriates and businesses in Cambodia gathered at the Lunar New Year (Tet) celebrations in Phnom Penh on January 17, as the biggest Vietnamese traditional festival only about a week away.

Prominent among around 600 guests at the event were Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen and Deputy PM Men Sam An.

In his remarks, Vietnamese Ambassador Vu Quang Minh laid stress on the big strides of the Vietnam-Cambodia traditional collaboration across the fields of economy, defence-security, culture-education and people-to-people exchange.

At the Lunar New Year (Tet) celebrations in Phnom Penh on January 17

Highlight of the cooperation must be the economic-trade relations, with two-way trade reaching 5.26 billion USD, up 11.9 percent from the previous year, he said, adding Vietnam’s investments in Cambodia in agriculture, banking, telecommunications-IT, industrial production and processing-manufacturing, among others, have contributed greatly to social welfare and economic development in the host nation.

Addressing the event, PM Hun Sen congratulated Vietnam over its economic achievements in 2019, particularly the signing of the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA) and the Investment Protection Agreement (IPA).

He believed that the pacts bring benefits to not only Vietnam but also regional countries, including Cambodia, through the trade, investment and tourism channels.

The PM affirmed that Cambodia’s economic achievements could not be separated from Vietnam’s investment.

According to statistics from the Council for the Development of Cambodia (CDC), Cambodia licensed 85 Vietnamese projects worth 2.5 billion USD during 1994-2019. Besides, Vietnamese corporations have poured capital into Cambodia’s banking, insurance, service and retail and wholesale.

Regarding tourism sector, Vietnam is the second largest source of foreign tourists in Cambodia. Some 720,000 Vietnamese nationals visited Cambodia during January-October 2019, increasing 16 percent from the same time in 2018.